Monday 28 November 2011

Winners & A New Look!

Welcome to my new look Blog.... bubbles all the way!

Before I announce the winners for the Kindle copies of Satchfield Hall, I would like to thank everyone for their wonderful support for the re-launch of my epic saga because without you it would not have happened.

And now for those who kindly added The Situation to their comments on my previous post, it is the time to reveal who the winners are. So drum roll please drrrrrrr.... and the winners who will receive a voucher to download a copy of Satchfield Hall are........

Jontybabe
Janice Horton

So that you can download Satchfield Hall onto your Kindle vouchers will be winging there way to you very shortly. Warning: tissues are needed!

Thanks once again to everyone who entered the draw and of course you can read the prologue here, just go the the Satchfield Hall page at the top of my Blog, click and read..... enjoy!

Oh yes, I do hope you like the new look to my Blog too!

Thursday 24 November 2011

It's Offically Re-Published!

I know I have been going on and on and on about my Magnolia House and Satchfield Hall being edited by the wonderful and amazing Jo Field. And then on top of all that, I've crooned about the beautiful new covers designed by Cathy at Avalon Graphics. Well you will be very pleased to know, I will stop going on about it all because today Satchfield Hall is officially re-published!

As you know Magnolia House was re-published in October, and today it is the turn of Satchfield Hall to stand high above all the books to get noticed. So please raise a glass of bubbly with me, there is plenty on that side table over there and toast .... Satchfield Hall!

As you enjoy your bubbly and wolf down all those lovely nibbles I've laid on, here is a little about Satchfield Hall....

Set between 1942 and 1986 Satchfield Hall is not about gentleness, tranquility and privilege, it is about power, love, lies and in the end revenge. Lives will be lost and destroyed and it will take until the death of the one man who had callously started it all, the Squire of Satchfield Hall, Henry Bryant-Smythe, until it is finally over.

If you enjoyed Downton Abbey, I think you will love Satchfield Hall and because I want you to have a taster, I've added a new page to my Blog so that you can read the Prologue, so please click on Satchfield Hall page at the top to find out where it all begins.

And today, I am giving 2 Kindle copies away, so if you would like the chance to win a Kindle copy, please leave a comment with these words. The Situation! By the way The Situation was the beginning!

Do help yourself to more bubble!

Monday 21 November 2011

Manic Madness Monday!

Phew the week has got of to a mad start, but all good stuff though!

My little new venture has taken me by surprise and I have received many emails from people wanting to join. In just 3 weeks we have doubled in size and had over 1,200 visits to our fabby new site. This morning I had emails from the UK, USA and Canada from authors asking to join! Oh yes, did I not mention, my new venture is the Famous Five Plus, a site specially for Indie Authors and Book Reviewers. If you are interested, please meander over and find out what all the talk is about and meet some great authors too!



Also this week, I have my official re-launch day for my Satchfield Hall and that will be Thursday 24th, so please pop back as I will be offering free Kindle versions of this epic saga.

On top of this I have to organise.... no no I must stop, I don't want to bore you with all my doings, but please do come back on Thursday to have a chance to win a Kindle copy of Satchfield Hall. See you then, I'm away to chill the champas!

Friday 18 November 2011

A Fab Week!

It's Friday again! And what a fabby week it has been. It got of to a cracking start with two great reviews for Magnolia House from Sue Fortin and Susan Livingstone, quickly followed by a 5 star Amazon review for Sometimes It Happens... from Linn B Halton. And if that was not enough, I had a birthday! The champagne, chocs and being spoilt were all so fab, but adding another year to my age..... well!!

To end this wonderful week I am over at the new Indie Author Blog, The Famous Five Plus talking about Marketing - Technology and the Imagination. Come on over and find out not just what I'm saying, but more importantly come along and meet the team too. See you there!

Monday 14 November 2011

New Cover for Satchfield Hall

I am so excited that at last I can reveal the beautiful new cover for my Satchfield Hall.

The cover has been desinged by Cathy at Avalon Graphics. Cathy designed the covers for Sometimes It Happens... and Magnolia House and as you know they are all fab!

Satchfield Hall will be re-published this month, firstly in Kindle, followed within a couple of weeks in paperback. Satchfield Hall is a sweeping saga set during and after the second World War. It is about the rich and powerful and how the power of one man, the Squire of Satchfield Hall used his position to destroy lives. It will be decades later before everything will be laid to rest, but not before revenge is executed.

I hope you like the cover as much as I do and that the brief description will tempt you enough that Satchfield Hall will be added to your reading list.

Friday 11 November 2011

A Little Taster

I am so close to the end of all the work for re-editing and polishing Satchfield Hall and today, I saw the concept for the new cover. I am so excited about the design that I can't wait to share it with you.... ! So please do come back very soon and then I will be able to show you my beautiful new cover.

Until the next time, here is a little taster from Satchfield Hall...

Celia stood alone in the shadows of the sweeping boughs of a willow tree. From her vantage point, she could clearly see the four people huddled together by the open grave, their heads bowed as they carried out the solemn ritual of bidding their last goodbyes. Despite it being no more than twenty yards from where she watched, the gathered mourners could not see her. She need take only a few steps forward to be visible to them, but Celia had no desire whatsoever to be seen.
Unlike the small party, she was not dressed in sombre clothing, nor was she weeping. For her, it was not a day to mourn; she had done that years earlier. Wept at the loss of the man she once believed had cared for her. He had, but not in the way she had hoped. Like everything in Henry Bryant-Smythe’s life, he had viewed her as an asset, an investment, and when she had deprived him of what he believed was his insurance with a healthy dividend, he had made her pay, The price had been high; very high.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

That Zing Feeling!

It's been a bit of a zing week and not just for me, but for some of the fabby cyber friends I have made over the last couple of years. This last week three of these friends celebrated launch days, so a BIG congrats to:

Mandy Baggot, Strings AttachedNiamh Clune, Orange Petals in a Storm  and Marie Duffy, Any Dream Will Do


My little zing celebration this week was down to the fact that we have just finished the edits for my Satchfield Hall and now we are left to re-read the complete book again. I confess to shedding a few tears, not for ending the edits, but the story is a real tear jerker..... I know I should not be weeping, I wrote the story and know the end.....!

Another happening that added more zing to my week is that I have seen the concept for Satchfield Hall's new book cover and it is another beautiful design. I can't wait to share it with you.

Just one or two of my zing moments, I hope you've had a few zing moments too so far this week and that you'll share them with us all.  For now, I'm away to re-read Satchfield Hall to make sure it is absolutely perfect before publishing. Until next time, keep smiling, I will if you will.

Monday 7 November 2011

Nicky Wells - Long Manes & Deep Voices!!

You have no idea what an entertaining time I have had sitting around my pool, sipping cool drinks and eating squidgy delights with the fabby Nicky Wells. Please do sit down and join us as Nicky reveals all about Sophie's Turn!

When the lovely Pauline invited me to join her on her blog to have a chat, I was absolutely delighted. When she added, “tell us something interesting about you or your book,” I panicked. There’s that word again: “interesting.” Oh, the pressure of being “interesting.” Am I interesting? I don’t really know.
But then I realised, hey, we were going to be lounging round the pool! There’ll be G&Ts and finger foods, right? So… if we’re having that kind of a chat, I might well be able to tell you, in strictest confidence of course, the real inspiration behind Sophie’s Turn. Between us girls…
So here goes.

OK, this is a bit embarrassing. I’ve always had a bit of a thing for rock stars, particularly lead singers with long manes and lovely deep voices. This started when I was a teenager. My first crush was the gorgeous Joey Tempest of Europe, and I was fourteen. I spent months constructing elaborate scenarios in my head of how I might bump into him (and more) (whoops).

I grew up, as one does. The crush faded, but the weak spot for rock singers stayed with me. Over the years, I even had an opportunity to go backstage with a couple of bands but I usually had a boyfriend with me so it wasn’t quite the same.

And then I got married, fell pregnant, and left my job. Suddenly, I had an opportunity to do something I’d always wanted to do: write a book! Write the book. The definitive Nicky book. The one that would resurrect all those daydreams and weave them into a funny, charming, dreamy and (just occasionally) sad narrative. Somehow, though, the story didn’t quite work out as I’d imagined. Mostly, I think, on account of having actually grown up properly somewhere along the line. So the original daydreams became tempered with the lens of reality, of authenticity. I wanted to write a story that could have happened, not a madcap flight of fancy. The result is… Sophie’s Turn. It is all fiction, of course. But, based on my own experiences, I feel all of them could have happened to somebody. And there you have it… 

About Sophie’s Turn
Rock star romance Sophie’s Turn is the charming, funny and occasionally bitter-sweet story of one young woman’s entanglement with a rock star. One fine day in Paris, Sophie Penhalligan suddenly finds herself engaged to her teenage crush and love-of-her-life-from-a-distance, rock singer and star extraordinaire Dan Hunter. But there is the small matter of her very recent, but very prior, engagement to Tim. Reliable, honest, trusting Tim, her boyfriend of two years stashed away safely in his mews house in South Kensington while Sophie is drinking rather too much champagne with Dan in Paris. The novel describes how Sophie gets into this impossible situation and how she turns it around.

Sophie’s Turn is available for download on Kindle
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sophies-Turn-ebook/dp/B005C1GIFS/
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Sophies-Turn-ebook/dp/B005C1GIFS/

About the author
Nicky Wells is a writer, wife, mum and teaching assistant. Born and raised in Germany, she moved to the UK in 1993 to study and work. Nicky is married with two children and lives in Bristol. She is currently busily writing the sequel to Sophie’s Turn.
Find out more about Nicky at Nicky’s Blog at http://nickywellsklippert.wordpress.com You can also find Nicky on Facebook and Twitter.

Nicky on Twitter: @WellsNicky
Nicky on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nicky-Wells/240322162658246

Sunday 6 November 2011

Chill Sunday!

It is Sunday and and I do try and make them a tad different to the other days in the week, though not always successful as commitments yell loudly! However, today, I've turned my earing aid off... laugh!

At first light we were out with the dogs and after a long walk and Barney chasing the waves on the shoreline, an hour later we were back home, for breakfast. Well the dog's breakfast! After feeding them, we quickly made ourselves look like we belonged to the real world and headed to one of the beautiful hotels in the resort. There we sat in the dinning room, overlooking the tropical gardens of palms trees, banana palms, large exotic cages with even more exotic birds flying around and the sound of the sea gentle splashing to the shore, enjoying a champagne breakfast with smoked salmon. What a fabby way to start a Sunday.

How did you start your Sunday?

Thursday 3 November 2011

A Catch Up!


How did we get to November so fast? I don't know about you, but time for me seems to fly at an alarming rate. This week is no exception, but there are a few good things to show for it so far. On Monday I launched the Famous Five Plus Blog for Indie authors to not only show case their books, but to talk about their journey to publishing and beyond. There are six members of the group so far and a new author will be joining us shortly. If you are an Indie author and would like to become involved, do take a look at the Blog site.

This week I also launched my book cover sponsors, you can see who is involved this month in the top right hand corner. To be a sponsor on my Blog I ask that you place a copy of one of my books on your Blog for the same period your book is on my Blog, which is normally one calendar month.

I also received some lovely reviews for Magnolia House, one from the wonderful author Margaret James
Also Margaret has made Magnolia House, her book of the month on her Blog!

Keeping pace with everything else, I've been working with my wonderful editor, Jo Field on Satchfield Hall. Jo is well respected in the publishing world and together we are working on bringing Satchfield Hall up to the same polished standard of my other two books. We plan to re-publish Satchfield Hall at the end of November with a new cover from Avalon Graphics.

Satchfield Hall is now in two parts, the first part from 1943 - to 1952, the second part 1952 - 1986. It is a sweeping saga of love, power, lies and in the end revenge. I can not wait for this book to be re-published in Kindle and paperback. And of course, I will keep you updated on progress and the publication date.

Until we meet here again, have a fabby day!

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Thank You Sponsors

An exciting start to the new month because from this month my Blog will have sponsors!
So please page down to meet my first NINE sponsors. For the month of November you will see all of these book covers in the sponsor box in the right hand column of my Blog page at the top.

Last month I asked if authors would be interested in sponsoring all my posts for a month and many of you said yes! So without further ado let me introduce the nine book covers and their authors......!












If you would like be a sponsor in December please contact me to find out more at paulinembarclay@gmail.com

Once again a BIG thank you to this month's sponsors